ENGAGING STUDENTS IN EARTH SCIENCE RESEARCH: CREATING YOUNG SCIENTISTS THROUGH MICROANALYSIS

Faculty from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) and Fayetteville State University (FSU) have recently established the Southeastern North Carolina Regional Microanalytical and Imaging Center (SENCR-MIC). The purpose of the center is to increase research infrastructure in the region so that faculty and students in the region do not have to travel to large research centers in order to participate in cutting edge research. In addition to being one of the most economically depressed regions in the US, southeastern NC also has a very high proportion of minority students, who are less likely to pursue a degree in the STEM areas, especially the Earth Sciences. Here we describe a program to engage students at all levels in ongoing research using SENCR-MIC instruments and our future goals.

UNCP and FSU are both minority serving institutions with a high proportion of the student body comprised of female students. The program engages students in hypothesis-and discovery-driven research under the direction of a faculty mentor using SENCR-MIC instruments – a state of the art field emission electron microprobe (JXA-8530F) and soon, a variable pressure SEM. The goal for the program is to engage students from the high school level and up in projects that give them ownership of the science in the hopes that they pursue a STEM degree. To date, 8 high school students, 8 undergraduates and 3 graduate students have engaged in research using SENCR-MIC instrumentation. All students are poised to continue on in the STEM fields, some in the Earth Sciences, and the faculty involved have hopes of expanding the program.